MKV to MP4 with avconv/ffmpeg

Basic Conversion

Some clients don't like MKVs. An example is the plex client on an Amazon Fire TV that will request a transcode unless you force it to use Direct Play. However, converting is easy. If you do have subtitles in your file, you'll want to get those into SRT format as mp4 doesn't fully support embedded subtitles. We've also dropped any metadata, as embedded messages are usually annoying to see in your media player.

Selecting Streams

The default assumes you want 'the best' video and audio stream and the utility will attempt to pick for you. You can specify which streams you want if you need more granularity. See the ffmpeg link for details on how to map and convert streams if you want more background

Batch Runs

Errors

Cant drop subtitles

Certain builds of avconv and ffmpeg won't drop subs because they appear in the list of streams as other than expected. You'll see this if you avprobe the resultant MP4 and still see the subtitle. Even if you explicitly map streams, they're still there. It seems to happen when one of your streams is being copied.